Devotional Guide
For the week of May 8, 2005



LIFE ON LOAN



Life today and the life to come




To Read: Genesis 15-18





To Know:



"Then the kingdom of heaven shall be compared to ten maidens who took
their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom." (Matt. 25:1)



The kingdom of heaven shall be compared. Is this not a phenomenal fact?
The kingdom of God has counterparts here and now. The future can be
compared to people and events in our everyday experience. Humanly
contrived religions usually go to great lengths in order to obscure the
realm of God. Jesus went to even greater lengths to shine a spotlight on
the relationships we have that expose the relationships that constitute
the kingdom of God.



When Jesus said, "Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a
king who wished to settle accounts with his servants," we understand
because we too have accounts to settle. When we read, "For the kingdom of
heaven is like a householder who went out early in the morning to hire
laborers for his vineyard," we identify with the situation since we too
have been hired for a job. When we read in our passage that, "The kingdom
of God shall be compared to ten maidens, who took their lamps and went to
meet the bridegroom," we can appreciate the need to be prepared for the
unexpected. By drawing comparisons between the kingdom of God and the
lives we live at present, Jesus shows that the reign of God is
understandable and desirable.





To Do:



We must be careful not to divorce life now with life then. The world to
come is not utterly unlike the world today. Sin is what Christ came to
remove, not our personal existence or the order of life as God created it.
God's promise is renewal not removal. If we enjoy the blessings of this
life, then we will enjoy the life to come even more.





To Ask:



Father, help me to believe that what will not correspond to this life in
the next will be the curses that came in the fall of Adam.







05165$-05165